Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Desert Southwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit | G21AS00557

Opportunity Information: Apply for G21AS00557

This grant opportunity is a discretionary Cooperative Agreement offered by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) under the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program, specifically through the Desert Southwest CESU. The project is framed as research and development work in science and technology, and it is intended to be carried out with substantial involvement from the federal partner, which is typical of a cooperative agreement structure. The program context matters here: CESUs are formal partnerships designed to streamline collaboration among federal agencies and eligible partner institutions by supporting research, technical assistance, and education tied to public resource management needs.

The core purpose of the opportunity is to strengthen the USGS Water Mission Area (WMA) modeling toolkit by advancing large-scale, physically based hydrologic simulators and by improving the ability to build machine learning emulators that can reproduce the behavior of those physics-based models. In practical terms, physically based hydrologic simulators are computational models that represent water movement and storage using governing physical processes (for example, precipitation-runoff generation, infiltration, soil moisture dynamics, groundwater-surface water exchange, evapotranspiration, and channel routing). These models can provide detailed and scientifically defensible simulations, but they often require large amounts of data and substantial computing resources, especially when run at national scale or across major river basins. The opportunity signals USGS interest in pushing those models forward in ways that make them more capable, more scalable, and more useful for large-domain applications.

Alongside advancing the physics-based simulators themselves, the award emphasizes development of machine learning emulators associated with those models. An emulator, in this context, is a machine learning model trained to approximate the outputs of a complex simulator, producing similar results much faster and at lower computational cost. Emulators can be especially valuable for tasks that require many model evaluations, such as uncertainty quantification, sensitivity analysis, scenario planning, calibration, data assimilation, and ensemble forecasting. By explicitly calling out emulators, USGS is pointing to a combined modeling strategy: maintain the scientific rigor and interpretability of physics-based simulation while using machine learning to reduce runtime burdens and expand the practical range of analyses that can be performed at national and basin scales.

The work funded through this agreement is intended to contribute directly to USGS national and river basin modeling efforts. That implies the research is not purely exploratory; it is expected to support operationally relevant modeling priorities, with outputs that can be integrated into broader USGS workflows or modeling frameworks. Depending on the project design, this could involve improving model formulations, enhancing numerical methods, enabling better coupling among hydrologic components, increasing computational performance on modern hardware, improving reproducibility and software engineering practices, or producing validated emulator approaches that USGS can trust for decision-support applications.

Eligibility is limited to organizations that are official participating partners of the Desert Southwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit Program. The listing identifies the eligible applicant category as "Others," which in CESU practice typically covers the specific types of partner institutions recognized by the CESU network (for example, universities, nonprofits, and other approved entities) as long as they are formal members of the relevant CESU. Applicants outside that CESU partnership are not eligible for this opportunity, even if they have relevant expertise.

Key administrative details include the opportunity number G21AS00557 and CFDA number 15.808. The award ceiling is listed as $200,000. The posting shows the original closing date as July 9, 2021, and a creation date of June 9, 2021. The opportunity is issued by the Geological Survey (USGS) and is categorized under science and technology and other research and development. While the expected number of awards is not clearly specified in the source text, the ceiling indicates the maximum funding level anticipated for a single award under this announcement.

Overall, the opportunity is best understood as targeted R&D support for a CESU-affiliated partner to collaborate with USGS on next-generation hydrologic modeling: improving large-domain, physically grounded simulators and building credible, high-performance machine learning surrogates that extend the reach of those simulators for national and river basin applications.

• The Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Desert Southwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.808.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-06-09.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-07-09. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $200,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for G21AS00557

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